


Between the Idea and the Reality

by Bleeding_Rust



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: AU, Angst, Cross Over, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleeding_Rust/pseuds/Bleeding_Rust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor is captured by the Empire and is tortured by Emperor Palpatine upon his refusal to join forces with him. Unable to force the Doctor to open the TARDIS and finding himself unable to do so, he holds the man hostage in hopes that he will change his mind. During his imprisonment the Doctor the meets up with an old friend who goes by an unfamiliar name and attempts to save him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Idea and the Reality

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my AU/Cross Over 'Verse in which the Doctor visits Anakin at several points in his life. This snippet takes place between Episode III and Episode IV. The title of this story (and the inspiration for it as well) is a line from T.S Eliot's "The Hollow Men."

     Everything hurt. Parts of him that he didn’t know could hurt, hurt (and that was saying something, as he was quite familiar with pain). Both his hearts hurt. It hurt to see such a dear friend (he held all of his friends dear, perhaps too dear) succumb to such darkness. It hurt so very much.  
     The Doctor lay curled up in a small, dark cell. It stank of metal and burnt flesh. He was trying so very hard to pretend that the smell wasn’t coming from him, that it was coming from another cell. There were other prisoners. That much he could tell from the moans, groans and occasional screams. One of them must have been tortured by the man who called himself the Emperor. One of them must have refused to join forces with him. One of them must have possessed a power that he desired. One of them must have been left smelling like the nauseating combination of death and burnt popcorn. Not him. It couldn’t be him.  
     “Oh, sweetie,” a familiar voice murmured somewhere above him. He opened his eyes and saw River Song, or rather a hallucination of River Song. He’d been having quite a lot of these. She looked disappointed. They always looked disappointed.  
     “What have I done now?” The Doctor rasped, even though he knew the answer.  
     “You need to save him, Doctor.” She said, as they always did, “Why haven’t you saved him.”  
     “I tried!” He sobbed and reached out towards the hallucination, “Please, believe me! I tried…I tried…”  
     “You need to save him, Doctor.” The hallucination repeated, now only River Song in image. The real River Song would have hauled him to his feet and broken them both out of the cell. The real River Song would have shot the Emperor in the face, force lightening be damned, and dragged the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker into the TARDIS by his ridiculous cape. The real River Song would…the real River Song…he missed the real River Song so very much.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” The hallucination was now formless. “Save him.”  
     “I tried! I try every time I see him!” He wailed, curled into a tighter ball, “I’ve told him that I could take him away from all this. I’ve tried to remind him of who he was…I don’t think he remembers anymore…”  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Rose Tyler.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Jack Harkness.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Martha Jones.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Donna Noble.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Amy and Rory Pond.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Obi-wan Kenobi.  
     “Save him, Doctor.” Padme.  
     “Save him, Doctor!” They all shouted in unison. All of the people that he had failed in some way surrounded him. He curled up in a feeble attempt to protect himself from what wasn’t really there.  
     “Please…leave me alone.”  
     “Save me, Doctor.” The hallucination had a boy’s voice this time. He looked up and a fresh sob tore its way out his throat. It was little Anakin Skywalker. He was just as he had been when they first met down to the desert dust on his clothing.  
     “I can’t…he doesn’t remember being you anymore…he doesn’t remember…”  
     “Don’t leave me, Doctor,” the hallucination begged him, “Save me! Make him remember!”  
     “How?!” He screamed at the little boy who wasn’t really there, “How am I supposed to do that? Next time I see him should I say, hey Vader, remember when Rose Tyler accidentally knocked you out with the TARDIS door? Remember how it made you late for dinner? Remember how you used to say everything was ‘wizard’? Is that what I’m supposed to do?!”  
     “Don’t leave me, Doctor. Make him remember.”  
     “I won’t leave you, Anakin,” The Doctor promised, “I can’t save you or make him remember, but I will stay.”  
     “Save me, Doctor.” Tears were streaming down the boy’s face. If the Doctor hadn’t been so far gone, he would have noticed how strange that was. The hallucinations had never shed tears before.  
     “Oh, Anakin, I wish I could,” The Doctor whispered, feeling very cold now, “I don’t think I’m the one who’s meant to do it. I want you to know something though…If it was in my power, I would tear the universe in half to save you…I would do anything…to make him remember being you…that much I swear, Anakin Skywalker.”  
     “Thank you, Doctor,” The hallucination said, beginning to fade from view.  
     The Doctor felt himself being lifted from the floor of his cell. Cold metal pressed against his skin and the sound of mechanical breathing filled his ears. He knew who was carrying him and where they were likely heading, but he had neither the strength to speak or fight. Perhaps this time, the Emperor would kill him. Perhaps this time, it would be the last time.  
     “Open the TARDIS, Doctor,” the mechanical voice demanded. It was a demand he heard frequently over the course of his imprisonment, but he had never complied.  
     “Open the TARDIS, Doctor?” little Anakin Skywalker asked, placing a hand on the scorched door. This request, the Doctor fulfilled. He snapped his fingers and the door swung open. Heavy footfalls echoed through the interior of his craft. Metal arms clumsily laid him onto the floor.  
     “Take him somewhere safe.” The voice commanded.  
     The Doctor grabbed Darth Vader’s ankle before he could walk away and begged, “Please…come with me…don’t stay here Anakin…”  
The man who was once Anakin Skywalker paused. For the rest of his days, the Doctor would hope that in that small moment he remembered who he was. He would hope that there had been a moment, even if it was only a moment, when he had saved Anakin Skywalker.  
     “Goodbye, Doctor.”

     Amy and Rory where sitting in their back yard enjoying a pleasant summer afternoon, when they heard the tell-tale sound of the TARDIS. Amy ran to the rapidly materializing blue box, for it had been some time since she had seen her raggedy man. And raggedy he was indeed when he stumbled out of the TARDIS into her arms. Both companions tried desperately to get their friend to tell them what happened, but he wouldn’t utter a single word. He merely clung to Amy as if his life depended on it and sobbed.


End file.
